Pattern Fills Do Not Print Well (223452)

CAUSE

Graph 2000 renders its pattern fills at the resolution of the output device, whether it is a printer or display. The pattern size is defined by the Windows GDI, typically a pattern "brush" 8 x 8 pixels in size. On a display that has a dpi of 96, Graph 2000 will render its patterns at 96 dpi, repeating the pattern 12 times per inch. This will vary with the physical size of the screen, of course.

Under Microsoft Windows 95, the pattern, if printed from a printer capable of printing at 600dpi, is repeated 75 times per inch. Because of this, the pattern is so small you can barely see it.

However, changes to Microsoft Windows GDI allow Graph 2000 to print its patterns at larger size. It will not be at size seen on the screen, but the pattern will repeat 36 times, making it visible.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Use Texture Fills instead of Patterns

This method makes use of the fact that patterns are really just small, 8 x 8 pixel bitmaps and that Graph 2000 can use texture fills for the bars, columns, pie wedges, and other shapes. These bitmaps can be created in any paint or bitmap program that can save the images in a format that can be inserted using the Select Texture dialog. Once these bitmaps have been created, they can be easily applied to your graph.The following steps are for applying a texture to a data series:

Double-click the Graph 2000 object in your document so that it can be edited.
Select the data series that you want to edit
Point to the Format menu, and then click Seleted Data Series.
Click the Fill Effects button in the Area group of the Patterns tab.
Click the Texture tab of the Fill Effects dialog box.
Click the Other Texture button.
Select one of your "custom" pattern bitmaps from the Select Texture dialog box, and then click the Insert button.
Click the OK button in the Fill Effects dialog box.
Click the OK button in the Format Data Series dialog box.
Exit Graph, and then print the document that contains the Graph.

You are not limited to a simple 8 x 8 pixel image, Texture fills can be of any size, 32 x 16 pixels for instance. Feel free to experiment and see what works best for you.

Method 2: Paste the Graph into Document as a Bitmap

After you create your graph, return to the Office 2000 program your document was created in, and click the graph.
On the Edit menu, click Copy.
On the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Microsoft Paint. In Microsoft Paint, follow these steps:
1. On the Image menu, click Attributes.
2. Set the Width to 1 and the Height to 1, and then click OK.
3. On the Edit menu, click Paste.
  
  A message appears asking if the image in the clipboard is larger than the bitmap. Click Yes.
4. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
Switch to your program.
On the View menu, click Zoom, click 100%, and then click OK.
On the Edit menu, click Paste.

This pastes a bitmap picture of your graph into the document.
On the Format menu, click Format Picture. On the Size tab, make sure that the Relative to original picture size check box is selected, and then set the Height and Width percentages to 100%.

Now you can print this slide and the patterns are visible (the way they appear on the screen).

Method 3: Set the Printer Resolution to 75 Dots Per Inch

Set the printer resolution on your printer driver to 75 dots per inch (DPI). If you are printing with a Hewlett-Packard (HP) LaserJet 4, you must use an HP III printer driver to achieve this effect.